Gary L. Teeter

for Ohio Senate
      33rd District
 

continue conservation efforts for clean air, water and soil

Gary's views

Ohio EPA recognizes that there are many issues associated with landfills that concern citizens. Ohio's solid waste rules and regulations allow the Ohio EPA to evaluate the site, design, construction and operation of landfills. Those laws do not give Ohio EPA authority to consider other issues that typically concern citizens.
We must continually advance our conservation tactics to match new technology capabilities. With endless possibilities, spawn many solutions to the issues we are confronted with today. The continued expansion and installation of alternate energy sources combined with the increased use of  our own natural resources will insure an independence from foreign influence. This type of goal will create economic prosperity and ecological harmony with benefits for all. We must encourage and achieve less waste as individuals ,companies and governments.
It has been a long term concern for Ohio when it comes to the limited control we have in controlling out of state waste that crosses our state lines. Protecting Ohio's aquifers and fresh drinking water should be our first concern when it comes to conservation.
As your Ohio Senator I will continue to support legislation that promotes recycling and responsible environmental polices, to help ensure Ohio's rights to safe drinking water.
 
 

Note
These website articles are for bringing attention to issues facing our nation and world today. The links to the sites that host  their featured information are listed so that you may visit them to view and derive your own conclusions and opinions.
 
 

 

visit: http://www.epa.state.oh.us/pic/land.html
 
Solid and Infectious Waste

The Division of Solid and Infectious Waste Management (DSIWM) administers programs to ensure the proper planning and management of Ohio's annual generation of 36 million tons of solid waste. This involves oversight of 60 operating landfills, 57 transfer facilities, 601 compost facilities, 37 scrap tire facilities and 72 scrap tire transporters. The Agency also provides oversight of Ohio's 52 solid waste management districts. The Agency regulates the management and treatment of infectious waste involving over 2,756 generators, 78 transporters and 45 Ohio treatment facilities. Click here to find lists of regulated facilities. Ohio EPA provides oversight of 73 construction and demolition debris landfills. The scrap tire abatement program contracts for cleanup of the worst illegal tire dumps in Ohio.

In many counties, the local health department has primary jurisdiction for enforcing solid waste laws and regulations. This includes facility compliance inspections and complaint investigations. Approved health districts perform this function with Ohio EPA's approval and oversight. In counties where there is not an approved health department to perform these activities, citizens should contact the appropriate Ohio EPA district office for assistance.

Many citizens have concerns about out-of-state waste being brought to Ohio's landfills for disposal. Ohio and other states have tried different ways to prevent this, but the U.S. Constitution protects the interstate movement of commerce -- including garbage. However, Ohio is involved in multiple efforts to encourage waste reduction within our own borders. Ohio's Solid Waste Management Plan gives more information on efforts to reduce waste, including statistics on the amount of waste disposed, imported, recycled and more.

Ohio EPA recognizes that there are many issues associated with landfills that concern citizens. Ohio's solid waste rules and regulations allow Ohio EPA evaluate the siting, design, construction and operation of landfills. Those laws do not give Ohio EPA authority to consider other issues that typically concern citizens.

 
   
 

Clean Energy Solutions:
Repower and Rebuild America
visit http://www.sierraclub.org/energy/renewables/index.asp

Fixing our economy, transforming our energy future, slowing and ultimately reversing climate change and its consequences will require a clear agenda and aggressive timetable that will allow us to repower and rebuild America.

Our Program

The Sierra Club is helping to grow a clean energy economy in the U.S. by:

  1. Repowering America with green, renewable energy: Wind, solar, and other safe, clean sources of power that will energize a new American century.
     
  2. Rebuilding America with high-performance homes and buildings: Smarter, greener buildings that eliminate global warming emissions, reduce utility bills, and generate renewable energy.
     
  3. Linking it all together with a 21st-century "electranet:" An energy internet that links homes to a smart grid powered by clean energy. The electranet can reduce electricity consumption through a national transmission network that supports large-scale renewable energy and local energy generation that frees homes and businesses to produce their own energy.

We can build an unprecedented coalition of workers, non-profits and businesses to retrofit our inefficient buildings, construct new low-carbon structures, modernize our energy grid, push for laws requiring energy utilities to provide greater percentages of electricity from renewable sources, and allow companies and consumers to earn money from saving energy or generating clean power.

A Clean Energy Economy

We can keep the lights on and grow our economy while reducing energy use and transitioning rapidly away from oil and coal, to solar, wind and other clean power.

A clean energy economy will create millions of new domestic jobs, develop the technologies of the future that we can sell to the rest of the world, and provide a high quality of life for American families. more Read more


 

     


Staff: 
Carmen J. Cognetta, Jr. 
 Counsel to the Committee

Andrew Sterrer
Assistant Counsel
 

 http://webdocs.nyccouncil.info/attachments/59051.htm?CFID=146467&CFTOKEN=22020275 

THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK 

 

REPORT OF THE INFRASTRUCTURE DIVISION

Marcel Van Ooyen, Deputy Chief of Staff

 

COMMITTEE ON SANITATION AND SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT

Hon. Michael E. McMahon, Chair 

 

October 14, 2003

 

INT. NO. 558                                                 By: Council Members McMahon, Comrie, Fidler, Gennaro, Liu, Nelson, Recchia, Weprin and Yassky

 

ADMINISTRATIVE CODE:                       Amends he administrative code by adding a new section 16-141

 

TITLE:                                                           A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to the disposal of solid waste

OVERVIEW:

            On October 14, 2003 the Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management, chaired by Council Member Michael E. McMahon, will conduct a hearing on Int. No. 558. This bill would add section 16-141 to the Administrative Code of the city of New York by requiring the Commissioner of the Department of Sanitation (DOS) to dispose of no less than five thousand tons per day of non recyclable solid waste by a method other than landfilling or incineration no later than July 1, 2012

Int. No. 558

            Int. No. 5558 would add Section 16-141 as follows:

            Section 16-141 would require the Commissioner of the Department of Sanitation to provide for the final disposal of no less than five thousand tons per day of non recyclable solid waste by a method other than landfilling or incineration no later than July 1, 2012

Background

            Currently, DOS collects approximately 12,000 tons of residential waste per day. After the closure of the Fresh Kills Landfill was completed in 2001 all residential waste has been transported out of the city for disposal. All of Manhattan’s residential waste and 500 tons of Queen’s residential waste are transported to waste to energy incinerators located in New Jersey and Long Island. The remainder of the residential solid waste is transported to landfills in other states.

The cost to transport our waste out-of-state has steadily risen and for Fiscal Year 2002 that cost was$105 per ton.[1] Figures for Fiscal Year 2003 are not yet available but are expected to be higher.  For Fiscal Year 2002 New York City paid $1.26 million per day or $393 million per year just to transport and dispose of our residential solid waste.

Costs for disposal of solid waste in landfills will continue to increase. States have found that they can put a tax on trash going to their landfills and have begun to do so. These taxes are a quick and easy way for states to help fill budget gaps without having any impact on their citizens.

In addition, states that are the recipients out of state solid waste have taken action to prevent the importation of trash into their states. In the past, various states have passed legislation prohibiting or limiting the amount of solid waste that can be landfilled in their state. Recently, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals held it unconstitutional for states to limit or prohibit solid waste from being shipped into their state.[2]  Every year, legislation is introduced in Congress to prevent the transporting of solid waste across state lines. The latest bill introduced was HR 1730 on April 10, 2003 and titled the “Solid Waste Disposal Act”. This bill like many others, attempts to limit solid waste being transported into states that did not want it while attempting to pass constitutional muster.

The combination of ever increasing costs of landfill disposal, the negative impact it has on the environment and the continuing effort by states to prohibit solid waste from crossing their borders all point to the inevitable conclusion that we can not plan to simply export our solid waste forever. This bill forces the city to plan for that day by searching for other cost effective non-polluting, environmentally sound methods of disposing of our solid waste.

On the hearing date for Int. No. 588, the committee will also hear from five companies that claim they can meet the goals of disposing of our solid waste in a cost effective, non-polluting, environmentally sound method.       

[1] Mayors Management Report, Fiscal 2003, September 17, 2003

[2] Waste Management Vs. Gilmore, 252 F.3d. 316, June 4, 2001, Certiorari denied, 535 US 904

 

 

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